


Wave of Darkness

by TheMangosity



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Realm of Darkness (Kingdom Hearts), Wayfinder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 06:51:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17544785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMangosity/pseuds/TheMangosity
Summary: Aqua's descent into darkness.





	Wave of Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for the Treasured Memories fanzine! Everyone's piece had to be based on a quote from Kingdom Hearts, but I won't say what my quote is until the end. Enjoy!

It wasn’t that Aqua didn’t know time flowed differently in the Realm of Darkness. She just never realized how bad it was until Mickey told her she had been wandering there for ten years. It didn’t seem possible. She didn’t feel ten years older, but she took Mickey’s word for it. She was just happy to have a familiar face after so long. For the first time in a long time, she felt hope.

Then Mickey was gone and she was all alone again. Her chance to rejoin the realm of light had slipped through her fingers, but she wasn’t too broken up about it, at least not at the time. She had protected Riku and the door to darkness was sealed. The worlds were safe, which meant that Ventus was safe. She knew Terra wasn’t in a good place, but the thought of her dear friend struggling against the darkness sent fire into her heart. She would make it out of here, wake Ventus and set everything right.

Aqua held on to the hope Mickey had given her as well as she could, but it didn’t take very long for that hope to fade. Ten years had passed before without her noticing. How could she be certain it hadn’t happened again? What if the realm of light had fallen? Were her friends even alive? Was Mickey alive? Whenever she started to feel hopeless, she would take out her Wayfinder and stare at it hard. It reminded her of everything she was fighting for. It was the only thing that made her feel connected to the outside world.

With her Wayfinder in her hand, she could remember things a little easier. It filled her heart with memories of a better time, before the Mark of Mastery exam, before the exam had even crossed their minds. She and Terra used to get in trouble with Master Eraqus a lot when they were younger. They would pretend to train when the Master was around, but as soon as his back was turned they would goof off. Fortunately, they started to take their training a little more seriously after Ventus came to live with them. He was younger than them and they had to set a good example, after all.

Ventus coming to live with them was the best thing that ever happened to them. They all became instant friends. Studying the Keyblade became less of a chore because they had each other. She wished she could go back to that time, instead of being lost in the Realm of Darkness. She wished she could go home.

Aqua continued to wander and wander. Each moment bled into the next. It was so hard to concentrate. She couldn’t tell how long it had been. She started to fear that she would be trapped here forever, putting one foot in front of the other for nothing. What if she was dead? What if this was hell?

The moment when she protected Riku from that horde of Heartless began to replay in her mind over and over again. Why had she done that? She should have burst through the door to Kingdom Hearts Keyblade first and gotten herself out of here. Instead she had saved Riku, someone who she had met only once when he was a child. How could she trust him to protect the worlds when she didn’t even know him? She was so stupid.

It wasn’t until she started to resent saving Terra that she realized what was happening. The darkness was starting to get to her worse than it ever had before. She pulled out her Wayfinder and squeezed it until it hurt, but it didn’t work like it usually did. There was no flood of happy memories, only emptiness.

From that moment on, every moment was agony. It felt like every step tore a detail from her memory. She had already forgotten Terra’s laugh. She couldn’t remember Ventus’ favorite flavor of ice cream. She had to fight to hold on to their faces, their smiles. Mickey would be back soon. She just had to hold on a little longer.

Her memory continued to leave her. She could just barely remember Terra and Ventus. It got to the point where all she could remember was their names. She couldn’t even remember what they looked like. She only knew that they were her friends, and she needed to get out of here so she could help them.

She looked down at her Wayfinder to give her strength, but she forgot what it was the moment she set eyes on it. She only remembered one thing about this star-shaped charm—it was supposed to represent an unbreakable connection. It wasn’t unbreakable after all. Her magic had failed.

She burst into tears, but she couldn’t remember why she was sad. She fought one last time to remember her friends’ faces, but it was no use.

The darkness swallowed her whole.

**Author's Note:**

> My quote was Aqua saying, "An unbreakable connection!" from Birth By Sleep. That was a happy quote, but somehow my story turned out all depressing! XD I wanted to get this out before Kingdom Hearts 3 in case it tells everything that happened to Aqua in the Realm of Darkness. At least this has a few days to not be totally wrong! Thanks for reading!


End file.
